About a hand made acoustic guitar (project, back and sides, scale lenght, etc.)

[Summerbreeze]

Hello,

 

A luthier told me he could build an acoustic guitar with:

- an OM “Taylor” body,

- an alpine spruce top,

- honduran mahogany or santos rosewood back and sides,

- a honduran mahogany neck with a 24.9” scale lenght and a 1,77” (45 mm) nut width.

 

He said he would use the brace pattern of the Gibson L-00, he would not scallop the braces but he would put lighter braces instead. He explained this pattern is so light that the top will vibrate very easily.

He also said he would choose honduran mahogany back and sides, but that I am free to choose between honduran mahogany and santos rosewood. Note that santos rosewwod is not a true rosewood, but I read somewhere they are considered to be very close.

 

He does not have this guitar ready in his shop. He never build a guitar with these specifications before. So, I have no idea about its sound...

 

I know that the original Gibson L-OO has a sitka spruce top, mahogany back and sides, a mahogany neck with 1,725” (43,8mm) nut width. I do not know its scale lenght. (http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Acou...-Standard.aspx )

 

I am wondering if the sound of an alpine spruce top over mahogany back and sides could lack of bass and could be strident. That´s why I would choose santos rosewood for the back and sides. But I am not sure.

 

I have been playing for a long time on an D acoustic guitar with a 25.59” (650 mm) scale lenght and a 1,77” (45 mm) nut width. I also have been playing on an OM body acoustic with a 25.5” (647,77mm) scale lenght and a 1-11/16” (42,86mm) nut width.

 

I have big hands. I feel the 25.5” scale lenght with his 1-11/16” nut width is sometimes a bit narrow for my fingers.

If the scale lenght was 24,9”, I am thinking it would be narrower, and I fear that after the fret number 12, it may not be easy to fret.

On the other side, the luthier told me the 24,9” scale lenght requires less string tension.

And I read that some people like it for bendings but it requires stronger strings (like 0,012 gauge) to avoid buzzing.

I also read in some reviews that the 25.4” scale lenght is typical of the OM Martin, it requires more chord tension, 0,011 gauge would work, and this higher tension gives more sound volume to the OM than the 24.9” scale lenght which is typical of the 000 Martin, etc.

 

Please, I would like to ask what do you think about the luthier´s project?

Would you choose hondurian or santos rosewood back and sides ?

Would you choose a 24,9”, a 25,4” or a 25,5” scale lenght? A 1,77” nut width seems OK?

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Thomas

[Freeman Keller]

Thomas, I build guitars so I have a bit of the lutherie perspective. One of the advantages of a custom guitar is that you can specify anything you want. One of the disadvantages of a custom guitar is that what you specify may or may not work.

 

First a few random comments. OM is a size coined by Martin with specific meaning (as compared to 000 and GA). It is long 25.4 scale, 1-3/4 nut width, 14 frets clear, on a 000-14 body. It is a wonderful all around guitar, favored by fingerstyle players. Taylors similar size is the Grand Auditorium or x14 (the x designates the series and woods). The Gibson L-00 is a slightly smaller guitar, braced quite a bit differently, shorter scale - very popular in the 1930's with blues players (the iconic picture of Robert Johnson). I have owned a 314 Taylor, build and play 000 and OM's in the Martin style and have build and played L-00 sized guitars. They are different.

 

Long scale has more tension in the strings - this means they are slightly harder to fret, harder to bend notes, but you are usually able to drive them harder without buzzing or overdriving the top. Long scale is great if you down tune or play slide. Short scale, of course, is the antithesis - lower tension, easier to fret and bend, yadda yadda. One way to test if you like playing short scale is to take a long scale guitar, down tune one semi tone and put a capo on it - the tension will be similar to short and the fret spacing gets closer together. I personally prefer long scale and wide fretboards because I play a lot of slide and altered tunings.

 

I consider 12's to be light gauge strings, 13's would be "heavier". You need enough string tension to drive the top, too much makes the guitar hard to play. Again, that is something to be discussed with your builder - she can tailor the bracing to suit the strings that you want to use.

 

Alpine spruce is supposed to be a little stiffer than Sitka, but spruce varies a lot and a good builder will tap and flex the wood he is working with to choose the right braces. Again, one of the advantaged of a hand built guitar is that the braces will be selected to match the top (and the sound the luthier and you want). I've built with Sitka, Adirondac, and Lutz spruces - all make fine guitars. I'm sure you will be happy with Alpine.

 

There are literally dozens of ways that a guitar can be braced. Remember that the strength of a beam (brace) is proportional to the width (twice as wide, twice as strong) but proportional to the cube of the height (twice as tall, 8 times as strong). A good luther chooses both the width and the height to get the balance of strength - tapering, scalloping and other shaping can be used to get the response she wants. Flip side of that, tool lightly braced and the guitar will not last.

 

I've built a number of guitars out of Honduras mahogany - the general feeling (all else held constant which it never is) is that mahogany has a slightly "woodier" sound than rosewood, more punch. Rosewoods (and I've never heard of or worked with santos rosewood) tends to be a little more complex sounding - the common comparison is that a D-18 is the lead guitar in a bluegrass group, the D-28 is the rhythm instrument. However people can and do play anything on anything.

 

I have an interesting experiment going on right now - I'm building two identical parlor guitars - one from Madagascar rosewood, one from Brazilian, and they are the same as one I built a few years ago out of EIR. It will be interesting to see if I (and the forum) can tell any difference.

 

So, what do I think of your plans? Frankly I would get out there and play a whole lot of different guitars and decide what you like. Play a couple of L-00's (there are new ones as well as vintage) - you'll either love them or hate them. Find a guitar that you like and ask your luthier to more or less duplicate it - you can change the details without changing the sound. The other option is to let her build the guitar she envisions, let you play it and if you like it, buy it.

 

Keep us in the loop.